Economic
analysts have commended the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, for his
“timely” comment on the country’s economy, saying Nigeria needed to be
proactive and creative to solve its challenges.
Sanusi had during the
15th meeting of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on
Development Planning in Kano State on Wednesday, warned the Muhammadu
Buhari-led Federal Government that it would end up like the Goodluck
Jonathan administration if it doesn’t change some of its policies.
Reacting to the Emir’s comment, an
economic analyst and Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Asset Management
Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said the Federal Government and the
economic management team needed a better response to challenges facing
the economy.
“We need to react in a more coordinated manner. We need to respond with a cocktail of solutions,” he said.
“It
took us time to open up the economy to foreign investors. By the time
we did, the foreign investors had moved on. The fuel subsidy that we
removed was good, but it could have come with other actions that would
have helped the economy.
“We
need foreign borrowing in order to bring dollar liquidity back and
stabilise the market. The President will need to set up an economic
think tank that will come up with a detailed approach to tackle the
problems.”
The
Head, Research and Investment Advisory, SCM Capital, Mr. Sewa Suwu,
said the current economic management team needed to move faster than the
current pace.
He
said, “The economic challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria, but all
commodity exporting countries. The best way out of the current
challenges is to spend our way out of it.
“We
have a national problem and it is a time for all economists and experts
to come up with ideas that can help us to get out of the challenges as a
country. We need to come together as one and tackle the situation.”
The
Director General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic
Management, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, who noted that the government could not
fix the country in one year, said, “What I will call a mistake is the
delay in taking action; we call it lag structure in economics.
“For
example, there was an unnecessary delay in passing the budget. There
was an unnecessary delay in forming a cabinet. Those two major delays
have been creating problem for the country.
“In
February, some of us warned that we were on a tip of a recession with
rising unemployment, rising inflation and declining productivity.
“If
at that point, they had implemented the budget and released money –
because you must spend out of a recession – we would have avoided the
recession. A budget of 2016 was passed on May 6; even as we speak, we
don’t know how far they have gone with the implementation.”
He also said there was a delay in fiscal policy.
“For
a long time, monetary policy was the only thing people were talking
about because we didn’t see any fiscal policy. When it started coming
out, it was late.”
An
expert in Financial Economics at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom
State, Prof. Leo Ukpong, said the Buhari government made a lot of
mistakes in the way the government handled the foreign exchange
challenge.
He
said, “The foreign exchange policy could be done such that it reduces
the negative economic pressure. I think when they allowed the naira to
be fixed for too long, for more than a year; it destroyed our ability to
shore up manufacturing capacity.”
He
stated that the government had not been aggressively pursuing
industrialisation and had not been seen to have come up with serious
economic plan to reduce unemployment in the country.
“Right
now, what we need is to create jobs and keep people employed. I have
not seen any clear-cut policy in that direction,” Ukpong added.
Chelsea is in talks to seal the transfer of Fiorentina
lef-back Marcos Alonso, according to reports.
